XDCAM EX and iMovie

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XDCAM EX and iMovie

Normally I use FCP to edit 1920 x1080p/25 material, but I find iMovie fast and easy to produce short movies. I have not been impressed so far of the results with iMovie/iDVD and hope this will change with the new version. I would like to edit full 1080p material in iMovie and burn it on a external BD to obtain a "loseless" result on BD. I know there is a lot of experts out there - need help with workflow and how to solve this.

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6), Sony XDCAM EX 1

Posted on Jan 27, 2009 1:35 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 27, 2009 4:30 AM in response to Jazmuz

iMovie converts all assets to Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC). So does Final Cut Express. Only Final Cut Studio uses Apple ProRes as codec. When going the Full HD and BluRay route you WILL see this. For instance when panning, you'll see that Final Cut Studio is superior over AIC. Yet I use the iMovie and Toast route because it is fast and good. Toast delivers better results than iDVD08. I havent tested iDVD09 yet but am about to do so. Remember that Toast can handle BluRay and iDVD not. Even for normal DVD you'll see that Toast renders better than iDVD. The menus have improved in Toast10 but still cannot match iDVD. DVDstudioPro is very nice in results, but has a learning curve. Consider the Ripple Training DVDs to tackle the possibilities.

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Answer 2

Jazmuz Author

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Jan 27, 2009 8:52 AM in response to Albert Zeeman

Thank you for info. When I choose Export to Quicktime movie I have the following options:

AIC
Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)

+ loads of different codecs from JVC and also Sony EXCAM EX 1080P/24 (35Mb/s VBR).

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Answer 3

Jan 28, 2009 1:44 PM in response to Albert Zeeman

"iMovie converts all assets to Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC). So does Final Cut Express. Only Final Cut Studio uses Apple ProRes as codec. When going the Full HD and BluRay route you WILL see this. For instance when panning, you'll see that Final Cut Studio is superior over AIC."

iMovie will edit many QT codecs directly including ProRes 422, H.264/AVC, DVCPRO HD. It converts to AIC only when you import from a camera.

So if XDCAM EX is converted to ProRes outside iM -- then iM will edit the ProRes. Even HQ.

You do have export correctly -- to ProRes -- in order to get full 1920x1080 from iM for burning BD.

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